NI Announces CEO Transition Plan to Position Company for Next Phase of Growth

Board appoints Alex Davern Chief Executive Officer and President
Effective January 1, 2017; Dr. James Truchard to remain Chairman of the
Board

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
NI (Nasdaq: NATI), the provider of platform-based systems that enable
engineers and scientists to solve the world's greatest engineering
challenges, today announced that its Board of Directors has elected Alex
Davern, age 49, to serve as Chief Executive Officer and President of
National Instruments, effective January 1, 2017. Davern will succeed Dr.
James Truchard, age 73, who has served as the Chief Executive Officer of
NI since the company's founding in 1976. Dr. Truchard will remain as
Chairman of the Board. The Board of Directors plans to appoint Mr.
Davern to the Board by the end of January 2017. This transition is being
undertaken as part of the Board's succession planning process.

"It has always been my goal for NI to be a company built to last," said
Dr. James Truchard, CEO and co-founder. "Over the last decade, in the
face of a weak industrial economy I have focused my efforts on helping
to ensure that we were making the long-term strategic investments
necessary to set NI up for future growth. I believe these major platform
investments, in key areas like PXI modular instrumentation, RF
measurements, CompactRIO, and our entire software platform, will
continue providing NI with disruptive platform capabilities needed to
expand our long-term market opportunity. Given our significant progress,
much of which was showcased at NIWeek earlier this month, I believe NI
is well-positioned for the coming decade."

Truchard continues, "It is the right time for me to retire as CEO. I
have worked with Alex Davern for more than 20 years. He is an
exceptional leader and business strategist, with a demonstrated track
record of success. I have complete confidence in Alex and the rest of
the senior leadership team at NI to continue delivering on our
consistent track record of innovation, growth and profitability."

"As a company built to last, Dr. Truchard has built an extremely capable
senior leadership team over the years, and I am honored and excited to
lead NI into its next phase of growth and profitability," said Davern.
"Our differentiated platform and ecosystem coupled with our strong
business model, give us the opportunity to be the preeminent company in
test, measurement and control." Davern has served as Chief Operating
Officer of NI since 2010, and Chief Financial Officer since 1997.
Davern, and the rest of the senior management team, including Jeff
Kodosky, co-founder, Fellow, and Board member of NI; Eric Starkloff,
Executive VP of Global Sales and Marketing; Scott Rust, Senior VP of
R&D; and Duncan Hudson, Chief Platform Officer, have over 100 years of
experience at NI, working closely with Dr. Truchard.

"Countless entrepreneurs have great ideas and start companies, but very
few have accomplished what Jim has - from moonlighting out of our garage
and kitchen in 1976, to self-funding the business, to a successful IPO
in 1995, to the $1B+ revenue company we are today with over 7,000
employees around the globe," said Jeff Kodosky, NI co-founder, Fellow
and Board member. "But more than just financial success for the company,
what truly stands out is the impact that Jim and NI have had on
engineering and science over these last four decades. The innovation he
has enabled across so many industries inspires me to this day. I look
forward to his ongoing contributions as Chairman."

In light of Mr. Davern's promotion, the company will start the process
of considering candidates to serve as Chief Financial Officer and
expects to complete the process by the end of 2016.

NI does not plan to hold an investor conference call in connection with
this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements" including statements
regarding positioning the company for the next phase of growth, enabling
engineers and scientists to solve the world's greatest engineering
challenges, plans to appoint Mr. Davern to the Board, being a company
built to last, helping to ensure that we were making the long-term
strategic investments necessary to set NI up for future growth, that
these major platform investments will continue providing NI with
disruptive platform capabilities needed to expand our long-term market
opportunity, being well-positioned for the coming decade, NI continuing
delivering on our consistent track record of growth and profitability,
leading NI into its next phase of growth and profitability, ongoing
contributions as Chairman, the opportunity to be the preeminent company
in test, measurement and control and timing of the process of selecting
a new chief financial officer. These statements are subject to a number
of risks and uncertainties, including the risk of adverse changes or
fluctuations in the global economy, foreign exchange fluctuations,
component shortages, delays in the release of new products, fluctuations
in demand for NI products including orders from NI's largest customer,
competitive developments in the company's markets, the company's ability
to effectively manage its operating expenses, manufacturing
inefficiencies and the level of capacity utilization, the impact of any
recent or future acquisitions by NI, expense overruns, adverse effects
of price changes or effective tax rates. Actual results may differ
materially from the expected results.

The company directs readers to its Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31,
2015, its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016; and the other
documents it files with the SEC for other risks associated with the
company's future performance.

About NI

Since 1976, NI (www.ni.com)
has made it possible for engineers and scientists to solve the world's
greatest engineering challenges with powerful platform-based systems
that accelerate productivity and drive rapid innovation. Customers from
a wide variety of industries - from healthcare to automotive and from
consumer electronics to particle physics - use NI's integrated hardware
and software platform to improve the world we live in.

(NATI-F)

LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com and are trademarks of
National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are
trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.